Fenix 8 Microphone SDK and voice memo issues

I own a Fenix 8 and I really love the built-in Voice Memo (voice recording) feature. However, I've run into the following issues and would like to suggest some improvements:

  1. Background recording / return to watch face: After starting a recording, there is no convenient way to go back to the watch face to check the time. Using the shortcut to return to the watch face immediately stops the recording. I would love an option to keep recording in the background while returning to the watch face (showing a small recording indicator on the watch face would be totally fine with me — I just don't want the recording to stop).

  2. Compressed recording formats: Currently, recordings can only be saved as high-bitrate WAV files. I would really appreciate an option to record in a compressed format such as MP3 or M4A at a lower bitrate (e.g., 128 kbps). This would allow much longer recording time with the same amount of storage.

if Garmin decides not to implement these features officially, that's completely fine — but I noticed the current Connect IQ SDK does not expose any microphone/recording API to third-party developers either. If such an API were made available, I would be more than willing to develop a "Better Voice Recording" app for the Connect IQ store myself as a third-party developer.

  • I also would highly appreciate to get microphone access on the SDK.
    I am developing multiple Apps at the moment and one of the coolest usecases i can think of is utilizing the watch to interface with intelligent AI tools. Beeing able to speak to your apps instead of typing on the tiny screen or using the buttons would be a GAMECHANGER!
    This could open up an entirely new market, as one would be able to meaningfully input  bigger amounts of data to the watch.
    Please Garmin make this possible.